My Time in the Sun Read online

  “You can’t do that,” Terrence yelled, backed by grunts of agreement from the current board and deacons. “There’s due process to elect a board.”

  “You attacked Pastor Baltimore’s wife all willy-nilly,” she countered with a withering glare. “Y’all didn’t give him no due process. Her either.”

  That silenced the men.

  Aridell gave them a toothy grin, taking in the panic-stricken expressions on the faces of the board, deacons, and her empty-headed nephew. “We’re gonna get this here church under control. The right kind of control.” She gestured for the choir members, musicians, and the group she would call the Faithful Few to take a seat. They filed into some of the empty spots near the front of the church and waited.

  “Y’all need to decide what kind of church we’re gonna be,” Aridell challenged. “If y’all want to be the kind where we come strutting in our Sunday best looking all pretty and putting on a show, listening to our good choir and soaking in a few words from our good pastor, then going about your lives like you never set foot in this place … well, this ain’t gonna be the church for you.”

  Her gaze went a few of the women closest to her. “I’m gonna say something else. Every female up in here should’ve been on her feet when my nephew came at your first lady like that,” she snapped, waggling a finger at each one of them. “But y’all sat there and let him attack her virtue, all the while knowing that some of you churchgoing women ain’t closed your legs since the doctor opened them.”

  Gasps rent the air. A few hands fluttered before landing on bosoms that ranged from “barely ” to “my bra cup runneth over”.

  “What did she mean by that?” Sister Jean asked a hat-wearing woman next to her.

  “Means when the doctor first checked to see whether it was a girl or a boy,” Sister Beverly answered—and she didn’t use her inside voice, either.

  Sister Jean’s hand instantly went up to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh. Others didn’t even bother. They laughed outright and couldn’t seem to get themselves under control.

  “Now you wanna sit in judgment of somebody else, like you got that right,” Aridell admonished. “This ain’t gonna be that kind of church. We’re about to be a family. A real family who looks out for each other and takes care of our community. And if you’re not up for the challenge”—she nodded toward the exit— “the door’s that way. Make real good use of it.”

  Aridell waited a few spells to see if anyone would leave. None did.

  “You got a lotta nerve talking about family,” one brash woman said, getting to her feet.

  Aridell’s gaze narrowed, finding the woman’s features were the familiar ones of Terrence’s younger sister, Leesa. She was as round as he was dense.

  Leesa maneuvered past the people on her pew until she was in the aisle near Aridell. “One of your great nephews passed away. I didn’t see you, nor anyone else from your side of the family, at his service this past Saturday.”

  Silence again. Some of the Faithful Few and choir sighed while shaking their heads. Some mumbled words that Aridell couldn’t catch.

  “Did that woman really try to come for Sister Aridell like that?” Sister Vera said loud enough for those closest to her to hear.

  Brother Mark stood and pointed at Leesa. “That was way out of line.”

  “That’s some shady business right there,” another person chimed in.

  “Tasteless at best,” the choir director said. Nearly all the choir members nodded and voiced their agreement.

  “They do have a point,” Aridell said to her niece with a mild shrug.

  “Those clueless people have no idea what’s even going on,” Leesa snarled, throwing an angry glance at those she thought had spoken against her. “So they don’t get to have any opinion. Anyway, your actions speak way louder than your words.” Leesa’s double chin lifted and her lips spread in an ugly smile, showing crooked teeth that hadn’t seen a dentist since the baby ones fell out. “You can talk about family all day long, Sister Aridell. But you can’t hide the fact that there’s one part of your family that you’ve ignored all this time.”

  “You really want to go there? Here? Now?” Aridell countered, her voice a lot calmer than she actually felt. “I can tell you’re related to him—addled brains and all,” she said, nodding toward Terrence, who frowned at the insult. “So let me be square, as the young folks say.” She closed the distance between them in a few strides, facing the weave-wearing woman head-on. “When you think you’re airing my dirty laundry for the entire world to see, don’t be upset when I hang your drawers on the clothesline right next to mine.”

  Chapter Five

  Kari glanced at her husband, who hadn’t spoken a word on the drive to their tri-level home in Olympia Fields. He touched her hand from time to time, offering silent comfort, but the gesture wasn’t enough to dispel the anxiety filling her heart.

  All these years, she’d managed to keep her past firmly buried. Everyone had skeletons in their closet. Unfortunately, hers still had some flesh on them.

  * * *

  “One mistake and I’m here,” Kari said in a low tone, shame radiating from every pore. “I made one mistake and now I’m at a place so low that even God can’t find me.”

  “Don’t believe that,” the blonde said in a hushed whisper, and for a moment, Kari thought the woman wanted to say more. A police officer who’d probably seen things worse than Kari had ever laid eyes on still believed in God?

  “Look at me,” Kari demanded, her arms out in front of her. The woman now had a good look at a sampling of what she had endured. “Who’s gonna love me like this?” she asked, more about the damage done to her soul than the bruises and welts on her body. “Who’s gonna care about me? With the things I’ve done. With the things they made me do.” She lowered her hands to the table, brittle nails once polished with an innocent pink blush now were broken to the quick.

  “At least I was lucky,” Kari admitted, trying to find a shred of light in so much darkness. “When Mindy got pregnant, he beat the baby right out of her. She lost that baby and her life. When Kimmie made a client angry by refusing to do something he demanded, Daddy put a bullet in her knees and said she’d be perfect for clients who preferred a cripple.” Kari lifted her head and locked gazes with the woman and she could swear those blue eyes were glazed with tears. “Bet you never thought there were men who wanted handicapped children. But there were. You can’t imagine some of the things they wanted from us.” She inhaled again; finding some balance, then let it out in a long stream. “It came to a point that I didn’t care what happened to me, but that little girl … ”

  “You listen to me,” the blonde said, and this time she took Kari’s hands in her own. They were soft, warm, and the only gentle touch Kari had experienced in the last few hours. “First, you’re wrong. God cares. Second, I’m going to need you to revise your story a little.”

  Kari’s head whipped toward the woman, taking in the furrowed brow, eyes the color of an early morning sky, lips with a hard edge, and ivory skin that reddened with every mention of the child Kari had saved, or detail any of the danger she’d been in.

  This woman had been the one who’d taken the knife from Kari’s hand, then had the decency to cover Kari’s blood-splattered body with a sheet from the medical examiner’s van when the crime lab took her clothes for evidence.

  After escorting Kari into this drab room with lighting that couldn’t decide if it wanted to work or go out completely, the burly officers who’d vacated the spot a while ago wanted to withhold food and water until she gave a statement. The blonde refused. Soon a cheeseburger and fries, and a cold can of ginger ale, came with a short period of time to feel human again. Unfortunately, they were followed by silence that allowed the scenes of the evening to replay in startling clarity.

  “You can’t use those words that you said when you first came in here,” the blonde warned with a wary glance toward the mirrored glass.

  “But it’s t
he truth,” she countered, glowering openly at a woman she wasn’t sure she should trust, but at this point she had offered no judgements—only the warning that could decide where Kari spent the rest of her life.

  “The truth is going to need a little adjustment,” she replied slowly, as though willing Kari to understand something that she couldn’t truly voice in the presence of the colleagues who were watching; ones who were ready to slide Kari into a cell and leave her there for the duration. They seemed unwilling to acknowledge that she was as much a victim as Daddy. “If you can testify to the things you’ve seen him do … ”

  Kari’s mind swirled a moment, trying to grasp what the officer was laying on the table. Testify against the man who had turned her into something lower than human, or be locked up for the crime she had committed? A faint ray of hope lit the corners of her mind.

  “You saw that girl’s body?” the blonde ventured, pen furiously scribbling across the lined yellow tablet. “The one he killed?”

  “He didn’t have a problem doing that in front of us,” she replied. “Said it sent a message to the rest of us.” Kari swallowed hard, trying to force the words around the lump that had formed in the center of her throat. “I was in the car when he dumped her. He was never afraid that we’d say anything. He never had to fear us.” She shrugged, remembering some of the times she’d had the opportunity to attract the attention of someone she thought could help. But she was never sure who would look at her and believe the things she had to say. Daddy’s clients were some of the most normal-looking people. “Besides, we were headed to a client nearby, so putting her in the ground on the way was convenient. Work always came first.”

  The blonde scribbled a few more notes. “Do you think you could lead us to where he put the body?”

  Kari shifted her gaze to the nearest wall, her mind flickering through the progression of that night, zeroing in on a few landmarks that might be helpful. “I think so. He made me dig the grave. It was cold. The ground was hard. It took forever.”

  The blonde simply nodded as though this sort of talk was a normal thing. In her line of work, maybe it was. Kari knew her own kind of crazy was an everyday occurrence and required a coldness that helped her get through the toughest times. Jail would be a cakewalk by comparison.

  “The minute the trial’s over,” the blonde said, “I’m going to personally put you on the bus to Chicago.”

  “There’s nothing for me there.”

  “Honey, there’s nothing for you here,” the blonde countered.

  She had a point. A damn good one.

  I cut him until I felt better …

  Chapter Six

  “You know what? I think Sister Aridell’s the type of Christian I’d always want on my side.”

  Kari snapped from her thoughts and raised a questioning brow.

  “She’s the one you call after you’ve done some real damage,” Tony said, smiling. “Because she’ll say I’ve got a shovel and I know just the place to hide the body.”

  She winced at his statement. “And that’s the Christian thing to do?”

  “Lighten up, sweetheart,” he said in a weary tone. “I’m joking. I’m trying to wipe that serious expression from your face. Like you’re about to be sentenced to the electric chair.”

  Kari turned her head to look at the traffic whizzing by and didn’t respond. All of her secrets were out in the open. So yes, she felt exactly like she’d been given a death sentence.

  Tony released a weary sigh.

  “I knew something had happened,” he said, over the radio-filtered sounds of Richard Smallwood’s gospel group singing that angels were watching over everyone. “It didn’t matter then and it doesn’t matter now. We’re going to be all right, baby. We’re always going to be all right.”

  Those words, spoken so plainly, lifted Kari’s spirits. But only a little.

  When they walked through the doors of the custom built home, the calming colors in shades of purple, blues, and creams, along with the scent of citrus greeted them. And so did the fact that she now had to provide answers and wade through a part of her life that shadowed her existence.

  Butterflies were taking flight in her belly and slamming against all corners as she wrestled with what she would tell him. Though Tony was a man who understood the ways of the world, would he understand the dark parts of an experience Kari forced to the back of her mind every day? He would lose so much because of her and the pain that accompanied that thought brought her breathing to a halt. She loved him. He loved her. But he loved God more. The years he had been with her might be all of the peace and love God intended for her to experience.

  The blonde officer, Nancy, had been uncharacteristically kind and encouraging in her support of Kari while they were trying to build a case and waiting to see if Daddy would live or die. He was part of a syndicate of child sex traffickers who’d rather have seen Kari dead than on the stand testifying to what she’d witnessed. Didn’t want her to voice things she had experienced personally. But an even bigger issue surfaced when Daddy survived those multiple stab wounds; barely hanging on for nearly two months before he showed actual signs of real life.

  After Daddy was released from the hospital and went straight into police custody, the syndicate believed that at some point he’d start talking. Then the strategically sound wall they’d built to keep law enforcement spinning their wheels would come tumbling down, one person at a time. They didn’t think twice about putting out hits on him and Kari. Which is why the FBI tucked Kari away in a safe house on the outskirts of German Town to be sure she lived until the trial, but mostly to force Daddy to cut a deal and give the names of the higher-ups and the clients that would break the case wide open.

  When Daddy realized that the syndicate had been unsuccessful in their several attempts to “take care of” Kari, and he would become their next target, he did what any non-law-abiding citizen would do. He started singing. And it wasn’t church hymns, either.

  Thankfully, Nancy kept her promise then and after, which was the only reason Kari had a good enough head start to get her life together when she made it back to the Windy City. After that, Kari was on her own.

  The FBI and other law enforcement agencies had not been exactly shocked at the volume of children Daddy alone had managed to bring in. But they were appalled at the number of teens Kari identified as having been part of the market, who were no longer on this side of the grave. Children were a valuable commodity to Daddy, but they also weren’t in short supply. Neither were the clients, which Kari later found were as high up as judges sitting in local courtrooms, and as low as fathers with menial careers who had children of their own.

  The only difference between Daddy’s stable of tweens and teens and that of others who also had a house of girls, was that most of his came from households with parents that loved them. Daddy found them to be more “breakable” than others. Households like Kari’s, where the adults’ only sin was being too strict, maybe not letting them have friends from school or spend every waking hour watching television, or listening to secular music. Yes, those were grave sins in Kari’s book at that time. She hadn’t realized there was a difference between sin and outright shame. Daddy taught her that. His clients taught her even more.

  “I need you to understand that I love you unconditionally.”

  Tony’s voice jarred her back to her current reality. She had brought down a world of shame on a man she’d come to love more than life. Now she regretted not telling him about her past before they married. Had she known she’d end up being a first lady, she would have been more diligent in leaving him long before now. The pain hit her all at once and so did a blinding rush of tears. She tried to run from the dining room to give her time to collect herself. She hadn’t had a moment alone to process since church. Kari made it as far as the kitchen door, but Tony caught her up in his arms. “No, baby. You’re not going to hide from this.”

  The words were gentle, but firm. So was his hold on her. “I�
�d always hoped to be the kind of man you could trust with your secrets. Remember when I first showed you my rap sheet?” he asked, stroking her back. “You told me then you wouldn’t hold my past against me if I wouldn’t hold yours against you. I gave you my word.”

  Transparent. Kind. Loving. Gentle. He had always been that way, from the first time they met at a Jamaican restaurant. Kari remembered that day clearly. Since it would change her life forever.

  Kari walked into Jerk Heaven on the Southeast side of Chicago to fulfill a craving she had for dinner. Tony sauntered past the register carrying a white plastic bin of dishes from the section of the restaurant used for private parties. His gaze connected with hers and his smile was everything.

  She hadn’t been attracted to any man since she’d made it back to Chicago so many years ago. And she certainly hadn’t dated, though there were a few men who hadn’t given up trying. Something about Tony stood out. She chalked it up to hormones or something unexplainable. When he walked through that second time, without anything in his arms, she had a full visual of a body that was something the Good Lord had made and didn’t need to apologize for the perfection. Her mouth went dry and she could barely answer when his deep, resonating voice told her to “Have a great day, ma’am.”

  Kari wasn’t necessarily a “ma’am”, but the respectful tone and his intense gaze were enough to make her answer his smile with one of her own. And that’s all it took. She couldn’t get him out of her mind for two whole months after she left the restaurant. She finally worked up the nerve to return and inquire about the tall, chocolate, green-eyed man who worked there.

  “Oh, you mean Toooooony,” Stacy, the waitress crooned in a thick Jamaican Patois. “Oh, yes. A lotta women like our Tony. He is such a great worker. And not too bad on the eyes, eh?” She slid her order pad toward Kari. “Give me your numba and I’ll be sure to give it to him on his next shift.”